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I have entered all the chords of a song, but now I want to set the key signatures for different parts of the song. Is there a way to select a range of chords, and let BIAB detect the key signature (different parts have different key signatures)? I know you can do this for the audio chord wizard, but since I manually entered the chords, how can I do this?


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I do not recall seeing such a function in BIAB.


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There may be a roundabout way to do that, a workaround:

First, export the BB song as a Standard MIDI file.

Then open it up in a sequencer program like RealBand or Powertracks and edit it out to have just each section saved as a separate Standard MIDI file.

BiaB has a wizard that tries to identify the key signature of a MIDI file that is loaded into it, so load each one, make a note of the key that BB thinks it is in, then go back to the original BB songfile and use the RightClick -> Bar Settings to enter the keysig for each part.

This could get messy, though, especially for someone who doesn't have any idea about how to check to see if the key signature identification wizard is correct or not. And the transposition at bar thing is not likely to work with RealTracks, at least I don't think it does.

Success would also depend greatly on the chord "progression" you have entered. Sometimes we can string together chords but they don't have a key signature relationship, things like that can happen with BB and does all the time, it seems.


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Quote:

I have entered all the chords of a song, but now I want to set the key signatures for different parts of the song. Is there a way to select a range of chords, and let BIAB detect the key signature (different parts have different key signatures)? I know you can do this for the audio chord wizard, but since I manually entered the chords, how can I do this?




I do it the quick way and look at the last chord in the song which is in the majority of cases is the same as the Key sign (e.g. E chord means Key of E etc). If its a minor chord choose the minor key and so on.I copy this song to another name and then change it to a different key to what I want, copy the chords, go back to my original song and add these new chords. You now have the chordal progression in two different keys. You can do this also for parts of the song by adding the required bars and pasting in the new key chords.

Cheers F

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It is not normal to show different key signatures for different parts of a tune, although it is true that the key centres change throughout a tune. People who are improvising usually pick the key centres from the chord progressions, II, V, I etc, so that they can tell what scale to use. The only software I have seen that picks the appropriate scale (or mode if you must) is the JSSS = Jazz Scale Suggester System. You enter the progression and it picks the scale, or key centre. There is a lite shareware version available.

http://members.w-link.net/~jsss/

Be aware that a key centre might only last for a bar. That is a lot of key changes to make on your music.


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I'd like to echo Graham's sentiment regarding Mike Archbold's nifty little program, JSSS.

It is dirt cheap and has really been useful to me as a springboard for how to handle jazz standards. Here is my updated 2014 plug for this software, which compliments BIAB nicely, IMHO.

http://www.jazzscalesuggester.com/jsss.htm


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In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." -Martin Luther King Jr.
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